‘Intelligent dance music' in Vail Valley

VAIL VALLEY, Colorado — When musician Anthony Thogmartin of the electronica-meets-jam band Papadosio, which plays in the Vail Valley Saturday, pulls out his laptop during a show, audience members often times give him a funny look.

“A lot of people raise their eyebrows when they see that because they think ‘Oh well, that guy's just pressing the play button,' but I'm not,” Thogmartin said. “Every single sound is made by someone, and it's made live. Ten years ago you couldn't do these techno-like songs live but now we can … That is something that is a recent development: Accessible electronica live.”

Thogmartin and his bandmates Rob McConnell, Mike Healy and Jeremy McDonugh are the men behind the magic, and Saturday they will perform a free show at Finnegan's Wake in Avon. They're opening for local band Frogs Gone Fishin'.

The band hails from Athens, Ohio, and they travel across country in their sometimes-unreliable, big ol' van. The band calls their music a “non-denominational spiritual journey.”

Attendees can expect to hear a combination of synthesizer, rock, blues and techno that creates a really unique listening experience, which the band's dubbed “intelligent dance music” because it combines well-loved traditional music like folk, jazz, and rock and gives them a spin with some trippy techno. The result is a collection of haunting and eclectic tones that hum over the audience.

“We want to go deep, hit the emotional part of the cerebellum and really bring it all out there,” Thogmartin said. “We want to access a personal relationship with the people that listen to our music. ... We believe the one world family thing and people are too inwardly focused, when they should be more focused on a global family mindset.”

‘Be ready for something weird'

As for how the band's name plays into everything, well, that's up for debate.

“It's a constant dispute what our band name means, and we like to keep it that way,” Thogmartin said. “One of my suggestions is to think about it like Pink Floyd or something; you don't know what the name means but you always think of the music. So for us, we want something original as well so people think of our music when they hear our name, not what it means.”

Papadosio just dropped their newest album “Observations,” and they will be performing those songs and others at Finnegan's Wake Saturday. This is the first album they've made where all of the songs can be performed live.

The guys are excited to perform in the Vail Valley, and they hope the audience “gets” their music.

“When people see us live, one of two things happens — they get it right away and start dancing … or they just look at us blankly because we are combining music that has never been combined before. It all depends upon the crowds expectations, so Vail should be ready for something weird.”

When they began playing they weren't sure if people were actually going to like their style, but they've found that all the people tend to end up dancing at their shows, which is generally a good sign people are having fun.

“Our live show tends to be more of a dance show because we want people to come from their day and work it through them, like a treatment for the day. They are massaging their brain and soul.”

E-mail comments about this story to cschnell@vaildaily.com.